Gregoria's to reopen on Hillsborough Road

Gregoria’s to reopen on Hillsborough: The owner of the Cuban restaurant Gregoria’s Kitchen said Tuesday that he’s planning to re-open the restaurant with an expanded menu in a renovated building on Hillsborough Road.
Gregoria’s closed earlier this year after a fire heavily damaged the house that it was located in on Chapel Hill Road. Restaurant owner Fares Hanna said he was planning to use the building at 2701 Hillsborough Road as an event space.
Hanna said he bought the building last year. It was previously home to restaurant called China Inn for many years, Hanna said.
Located on corner of Hillsborough and Trent Drive, the building is across from what previously housed the now-closed Mexican restaurant La Salamandra.
Two events were held in the event space known as The Forum, but Hanna said he couldn’t concentrate on a new business after the fire. Hanna also owns restaurants on Duke University's campus and a catering business.
Hanna said a challenge was finding a location that could have the same small, cozy feel as the original Gregoria’s. The location on Chapel Hill Road had about 3,000 square feet between two floors. The new site on Chapel Hill Road is about 5,400 square feet. The new site is larger and has more parking.
He’s planning to expand the menu, serving contemporary Latin cuisine.
“We’ll still have the old favorites but with the addition of new items,” he said. “With the bigger space, we’re going to have a bigger … menu (with) South American dishes, specialty dishes, (and we’ll) have a bigger bar, which everyone was asking me for, but I couldn’t do in the other space,” he added.
To allow for the opening, he said he’s having the main dining room renovated. He said he expects to need another six to eight weeks.
“The main dining room – we want to give it … a Cuban feel, with the lighting, the design of the space, with seating,” he said. “All that kind of combined together with the theme of the place, it’s just going to hopefully make it look wonderful.”

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Whole Foods to showcase N.C. barbecue sauce: The Whole Foods on Broad Street in Durham is holding an event with cooking demonstrations called the “Barbecue Sauce Showdown” from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sept. 14.
The event is meant to celebrate North Carolina sauces, and will feature three locally produced sauces: Num-Num Sauce, Papa Jack’s Barbecue Sauce, and Smokey Dave’s Bird Bath.
Guests are invited to sample the sauces and to participate as a judge in a competition. The sauce makers will be grilling with their sauces to show off their best cooking skills, according to a news release.
There will also be sales of barbecue sandwiches inside the store. Proceeds from the sales will go to the Whole Kids Foundation.

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Karate International open house: Karate International of Durham is holding an open house on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to mark 33 years of business.
There will be a moon walk, face painting, balloons, and free martial arts classes, according to a news release, in addition to free classes in mindfulness medication, self-defense, and fitness classes.
Karate International of Durham opened for business in August of 1980. The business is at 5324 New Hope Commons Drive in Suite 304.

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